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Mr. King Never Asked…
by Amil Imani
CNN’s king of the talk-show hosts and the icon of one of the major television networks, Larry King, hosted an interview on Wednesday, September 24, 2008 with the devil himself. Many Iranians felt completely betrayed by Mr. King’s line of questioning. They felt that Mr. King was missing key questions. I am not advocating a hostile interview here, but how could Mr. King allow Ahmadinejad to easily dance away. It seemed he was deliberately making Ahmadinejad look and act like a human being.
As the old saying goes, "There’s no such thing as a stupid question." However, in the minds of many Iranians as well as many non-Iranians, there is such a thing, and Mr. King lost huge points with his line of questioning. Yet, valid questions remain about media performance and the role of public communication practitioners in shaping perception. The role of media is not to impose self-censorship and avoid critical questions.
It is hard to digest how the liberal media has single-handedly, in a matter of three short days, managed to make Ahmadinejad look statesmanlike. Mr. Ahmadinejad was given a forum to reiterate his deception, repeatedly. Larry King would not even say that he himself is Jewish and that he supports Israel. He looked very mesmerized by the presence of this evil man who is responsible for the death and misery that exists in Iran. He did not contradict Ahmadinejad, did not show him up. He allowed him to make points to undermine the existence of the friendship between Israel and the United States.
Ahmadinejad’s utterance on Tuesday echoed the past remarks he has made, including calls to annihilate Israel and threats to the U.S. and other countries that support Israel. On September 18, 2008, he said, "the Zionist regime is a regime that will disappear." But, I have news for him, most Iranians believe that the Islamic Republic is an illegitimate regime and will soon disappear. On February 28, 2007, he said, "Zionists are the true incarnation of Satan." Ironically, most Iranians believe that Ahmadinejad is the Satan and does not represent the Iranian people any more than his turbaned-colleagues presently ruling Iran do. What needs to be understood is that in fact Ahmadinejad and the Mullahs, above all else, are true Muslims and despise anything "Iranian" and its ancient "pre-Islamic" heritage.
When Mr. King asked him about his statement last year that there are no homosexuals in Iran, Ahmadinejad replied, that it is not the way it is here. It’s disliked in Iran. Then he asked Mr. King if he were concerned for 70 million Iranian people or a few homosexuals.
Mr. King should have asked how many homosexuals he has hanged this year and instead of asking him how many children he has, he should have asked him how many children he has hanged in the four years he’s been in office.
Mr. King missed an opportunity to ask him why he is so interested in securing Palestinian rights, while he is denying such rights to the Iranians. Why doe he want a referendum for the Palestinian people to decide their own destiny, while he refuses the same to 7o million desperate and unhappy Iranians.
Over the years, much of the world has been preoccupied with its own problems and shown little concern for the plight of the Iranian people until the Mullahs installed a firebrand Islamist, Ahmadinejad, as the President of the country. This man, called "The Monkey," by many Iranians is now alarming the world by being at the control of the Islamofascist train and throttling it full speed ahead for a cataclysmic collision. Ahmadinejad and his gang are loading their guns and doing all they can to obtain the bomb to bring about the biggest and most dreadful death that would usher in the "Mahdi", their savior-ruler of the world.
In dealing with the mullahs ruling Iran, what you see is not what you get, and what you hear is not what they mean. Transparency and honesty are not their strong suit. So, we need a first-rate understanding of the Mullahs to see through their smoke-and-mirrors, as well as beyond their twisted tongues into their warped brains:
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Mr. King never asked why the Islamic Republic has been denying and violating a long-suffering people of all its human rights. They are guilty of beating, imprisoning and torturing hundreds of women who braved participating in a peaceful demonstration pleading for equal family rights, on the recent International Day of Women. This regime has systematically beaten, imprisoned, and tortured all manner of citizens, from school teachers to students to union workers, for daring to raise their voices against the plight to which they have subjected them.
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Mr. King never asked about an Islamic regime that has savagely beaten and hauled to its dungeons of torture and death over a thousand of the tens of thousands of teachers who last year gathered in front of the parliament requesting nothing more than their back pay and living wages.
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He never asked why they have directed systematic genocidal measures against all non-Shi’a religious minorities, with Baha’is as their prime target. They arrest some Christians — whom even their Quran calls "People of the Book" — for observing Christmas.
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He never asked why they have implemented barbaric practices of stoning, hanging and amputations for those who are convicted of crimes in their kangaroo courts without any due process. They even imprison those few lawyers who rise in the defense of the innocent.
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He never asked why they have plundered, mismanaged and doled out Iran’s national wealth with the result that the great majority of the people are living in poverty. They have forced the Iranian women into prostitution to survive or simply are sold as sex slaves in Persian Gulf states.
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He never asked why they spend a fortune on the nuclear program that they claim is only aimed for peaceful purposes, while turning Iran into little more than a gas station nation, with its precious oil wealth squandered and its facilities on the verge of collapse through neglect. They have created a suffocating social atmosphere that has driven masses of the people to the use of hard drugs as a way of numbing their pain.
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He never asked why they look far and wide to support any and all terrorists. The Islamic Republic’s delusional theology mandates the creation of horrific conditions in the world so that the Hidden Imam is compelled to appear and establish his rule.
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He never asked why they spared no efforts at sabotaging any settlement between the Palestinians and Israelis. They arm and train all Palestinian factions such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and any and all that come.
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He never asked why they direct similar criminal schemes on their eastern flank, in Afghanistan. They consider any democratic system as the enemy of Islamofascism, and rightfully so. They have worked ceaselessly to expand Iran’s stolen funds, and do all they can in support of Shi’a co-fascists Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The Islamic Republic’s hands are dripping with the blood of thousands of Iraqis, victims of its bloodthirsty kin mercenaries aiming to kill a budding democracy in Iraq next door. They have supplied and continue to supply their mercenaries with armor-piercing projectiles for killing and maiming the coalition forces in Iraq. They are cowardly killing by proxy, using these roadside-planted bombs that have taken the lives of hundreds of Americans.
A final quote from the Ayatollah Khomeini, the founding father of the Islamic Revolution, should suffice since his words are still considered authoritative in Iran, and Ahmadinejad has been following his mentor’s words and deeds since Khomeini hijacked a peaceful and civilized nation:
"We do not worship Iran, we worship Allah. For patriotism is another name for paganism. I say let this land [Iran] burn. I say let this land go up in smoke, provided Islam emerges triumphant in the rest of the world."
Could Mr. King asked a more probing question than how many children he has and what is his stand on homosexuality? What a colossal parody!
Amil Imani is an Iranian-born American citizen and pro-democracy activist residing in the United States of America. Imani is a columnist, literary translator, novelist and an essayist who has been writing and speaking out for the struggling people of his native land, Iran. He and his family escaped Iran after the radical Islamic revolution. His observations on the growing Islamo-fascist threat need to be heard and understood by as many people as possible if we are going to stem the tide.
NOTE: Mr. Imani recently appeared on our radio program, "Meet the New Press" . Click here to download the podcast.
